Florida seeks exhumations of bodies at former boys' school

MIAMI, March 12 (Reuters) - Florida's attorney general askeda judge on Tuesday to allow a medical examiner to exhume theremains of young boys buried on the grounds of a former statereform school.

The Dozier School, in the Florida Panhandle city ofMarianna, has been the target of numerous allegations of abuseand mysterious deaths of children. The school was closed in2011.

In December, investigators identified at least 50 graves onthe school's property and anthropologists said research hadidentified evidence of more grave shafts in a cemetery at theschool.

The petition by Attorney General Pam Bondi seeks a courtorder to exhume human remains from the cemetery and surroundingareas, where it is believed there may be unmarked graves andunaccounted bodies of boys who died at the school between 1900and 1952.

"The deaths that occurred at Dozier School for Boys inMarianna are cloaked in mystery, and the surviving familymembers deserve a thorough examination of the site," Bondi saidin a statement.

Autopsies and medical investigations would be conducted onthe remains to determine the cause of death, the statement said.

A 2008-2009 study by the Florida Department of LawEnforcement that relied on the school's own records reportedthat 81 people had died at the school and 31 were buried onschool property. Their graves were marked by white metalcrosses.

Researchers and students at the University of South Floridain Tampa found records of 98 deaths of boys between ages 6 and18, plus two adult staff members at the school between 1914 and1973.

The research, which included an examination of state deathrecords, revealed missing, conflicting and "sloppy"record-keeping about the people buried at Dozier and how theydied.

The most common causes of death were disease, fire, physicaltrauma and drowning.

But seven boys died during escape attempts - including one16-year-old who suffered gunshot wounds to the chest - and 20died within the first three months of arrival, the report said.